Last year I served a 6 month rotation in the “giant sandbox” in parts of Mideast Asia and a short jaunt to Africa. I'm in the Air Force and my current job is a Weather Systems Technician which allowed me to travel to multiple locations throughout the entire theater. During my tour I visited over 36 locations in 6 different countries. Traveling that much, it’s easy for a person to loose a sense of time let alone know what day it is. The one thing that always kept me on track was always looking forward to Sundays (sometimes Mondays and Thursday). Sacrificing sleep was a must with the time change. Usually the first games on Sunday started around 9 PM, depending on which time zone I was in and if your favorite team had the prime time slot, you’d have to get up at 3 in the morning to catch the kickoff. I wasn’t the only one pulling all-nighters for the sake of football. It seemed that wherever I landed, the game was on somewhere and it was a packed house at every location. Soldier, Sailors, Marines, and Airman packed the recreation halls, movie theaters, and chow halls. In some places that was all the same place. Some guys and few girls would have their favorite memorabilia set out before them and some even braved throwing on a jersey, even though “civilian” clothing wasn’t authorized.

Typically, I had it pretty well. On most occasions I was able to catch a Cowboys game and allot of those times I was waking in the early in the morning since Dallas had a 5 games in primetime this past season. Three of those were while I was in Qatar, which served as our base of operations. That 3 AM alarm clock was sometimes painful, but, always worth it. A quick stop at the Green Bean Coffee Shop for some bagels and super strong coffee were always a good way to start the game. I had a T.V. in my room, but, it wasn’t quite the same watching it there. At work I was able to chat with my fellow fans on CowboyGuide.com in the game threads and watch the game at same time. Doing so, I was launched 6000 miles back into everyone’s living room as I was able to live every single play with fellow fans. I was cheering for America’s team while fighting with America’s Forces.

One of my favorite places to watch a game and surf the internet at the same time was the Pat Tillman Center at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The facility was built from the Pat Tillman memorial fund. The designers tried to make the place look and feel as closely as possible to an average American home. It was complete with couches, low lighting, wireless internet, plasma TV, and an endless supply of coffee and Girl Scout cookies. Pat Tillman memorabilia scatters the walls along various other NFL and Army Airborne collectibles. My favorite spot was the balcony overlooking the “living room” with a good view of the T.V. and a small table for my laptop. Pat Tillman died needlessly in a friendly fire incident and for his sacrifice of giving up an NFL lifestyle to serve his country, for that he’ll be honored and remembered. From what I’ve gathered about him, he’d be the first to tell you, he’s not the only one to sacrifice his or her life for their country.

Football is the game of war, so it should come to no surprise to anyone that even the fiercest warriors in the world (myself NOT included) are huge fans of the game. The game of Football is played the way that wars were traditionally fought, staring straight in to eyes of your opponent on a common battlefield. Football is a sport where team cohesiveness is key to winning and no one quite understands that concept more then US Army, it is without question. Here there are no celebrity players. Sure, there is always the hot shot Special Forces sniper in the bunch, but, they make the same dough that every other guy makes and their focus is making sure our team wins, the stats don’t matter. If any NFL team truly understood that concept to the fullest degree, they would be the toughest team in football, without a doubt.

My last thought is from the last remote place I went to, LZ Stonewall. The Chinook Heliclopter Circled the mountainside camp for a good half hour. My troop and I began unloading the 5 cases of equipment and our personal gear. It wasn’t a mere 10 seconds after we landed when the local soldiers helped us to the side and we took cover. When a Chinook takes of it really throws some debris around and when it lands in a giant dirt field, you are caught in a swirling dust tornado. Just as the chopper was out of range and you could hear yourself think again an Army Sergeant walks up an starts talking, “we havent’ seen or heard from anybody in weeks since our attack last week, you got any news on the Patriots?” Sometimes after an attack on an installation occurs all internet and phones are turned off. On this particular camp, they didn’t even have Armed Forces Network or any other television access. Apparently, we were the first chopper to land in a couple of weeks due to typical high winds in the area. Even though I despise the team I still gladly gave him all the news of the past few weeks. Just think about that for a second, some of his buddies were killed last week and the first question he asked was the status of his favorite team. Football is only a sport, but, to those that serve in the military, even if it’s only the highlights, you are suddenly wisped away cheering for your favorite team on Sunday back home, yelling at the TV. Initially, I was disappointed that I had to deploy during football season, now, I’d rather not go any other time.

MATTHEW J. NECE, TSgt, USAF